After a relatively short respite, I’m back … with an attitude. An attitude of gratitude.

Not including the obvious, e.g. my wife, daughter, family and friends; here are some things for which I am grateful this morning …

I am grateful for a life partner who values me more than she values the road well-traveled. For it is in my nature to judge, starting with myself, and given my humility, which borders on low self-esteem, I question my every part, and am quite inquisitive, and vocal. I fear these qualities make me a challenge.

I am grateful for my upbringing, which enables me to recognize folks who are honorable, as well as those who are not. In current cultural and political climes, this is requisite to mental clarity.

I am grateful for all the public figures that keep their opinions to themselves. Especially those I much admire. (Excepting arrogance, or more likely self-doubt, why would anyone presume the need for their unsolicited opinion when everyone already has one of their own?)

To some degree, I am grateful for my age. Given the direction our country is going, I have less time in which to witness its demise. Diminution of America’s prestige (“a shining city on a hill”) in the world saddens me greatly.